


do not put your faith in a cape and a hood (or your friends)

by Theflyinghamster



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: AU, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2018-07-08
Packaged: 2019-02-24 14:31:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13215765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theflyinghamster/pseuds/Theflyinghamster
Summary: inspired by http://kaciart.tumblr.com/post/169015194358Prompto woke up alone and knows exactly why.It still hurts both him and the others.





	1. Everyone's hurting and Nobody's really Together

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kaciart](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaciart/gifts).



> whats up its new years eve and im tipsy.
> 
> time for angst.  
> (and waaaaaaaay too many brackets)
> 
> title's from into the woods btw song is 'i know things now' by little red herself

Prompto doesn’t smile much these days. 

It wasn’t quite like before Pryna joined him, when he didn’t do very much except put up half-hearted fights against monsters, daemons, whatever. 

That Prompto didn’t smile at all. 

That Prompto wasn’t spoken of in inns and taverns as the Boy in the Red Cloak who was followed by his Wolf. 

This Prompto had bought a dagger a few nights ago when he realised that close combat was inevitable when you were alone and that Pryna could only do so much. He still preferred his gun, after all it was the only thing he really had left of his friends.

(Still friends he thinks, because they abandoned him by choice but not because they wanted to. They didn’t hate him, surely?)

And because he still burns with love, guilt and yearning, he sticks around not ahead or behind them but slightly to the side, out of sight. He has a sniper rifle that he can’t really bring himself to load and a bag of gil that he spends buying them hotel rooms a few hours before they get there. He sleeps in havens out of sight range of theirs if they decide to spend the night at one.  
He stays away enough that they’ll wonder but never notice. 

(He can’t bear to truly leave.)  
_

Ignis can feel acid in his gut. It is not gastric acid but guilt as he has done what was painful but necessary. Prompto was getting hurt too often and when Prompto is getting hurt Noctis is warping into danger to help him. 

It is no secret that the three of them would give anything to keep Noctis safe, but he does feel regretful that Gladio had convinced him not to ask Prompto if Noctis was something he would give up.

He doesn’t know exactly how such a conversation would’ve gone but he can tell that it would’ve ended with Prompto crying but nodding. Did he allow them to leave Prompto in the night so that he wouldn’t have to see the boy cry? A stabbing pain tells him that, yes, he abandoned Prompto like that for his own selfish emotions. 

(He couldn’t bear to see him cry.)  
_

Gladio hits harder to keep his mind quiet. He doesn’t think of calculating how much food they left Prompto with, nor does he think of how the kid must be sleeping outside without a tent because for some fucking reason they only had one 4-person tent. 

(The reason was the assumption that they would always be together but Gladio doesn’t think of that either.)

He made the right choice, he knows he did. It wasn’t easy to admit that they had to leave Prompto behind, but he had to. Prompto wasn’t the one he’d dedicated his life to protecting, he had to be able to keep up.  
So, Gladio swings his sword and tries to forget that Prompto only had a few rushed weeks of combat training.

(He can’t bear to think of the consequences of his decision.)  
_

Noctis isn’t sleeping. Shock horror, but he hasn’t slept for more than an hour or two since they’d abandoned Prompto.  
Apparently, the idea that his best friend was alone and injured wasn’t exactly conductive to sleep.  
He knows he’s being an ass to Ignis and Gladio, but he can’t stop himself from seeing Prompto pale and injured on that motel bed and knowing that they’d forced him to leave him there.

(He should’ve done something, but they were right, it was safer for Prompto. He hopes it was.)

Forgiveness is harder because he sees the echoes of Prompto in motel admins saying that ‘the blonde one’ had already got them a room a few hours ago, here’s your key. They have better weapons now because Prompto was saving them money.  
Noctis wants desperately to seek him out and bring him back but doesn’t because he knows Ignis and Gladio wouldn’t allow it. 

(He can’t bear the thought that Prompto would refuse to come back.)  
_

Prompto decides that he needs to leave properly.  
He goes where Pryna leads him and finds Luna.  
_

“I was going to ask Pryna to accompany you, but she had already gone to you before I could.”  
Luna is everything and nothing that he expected. She is dignified and soft but also warm and sad. He chokes up because her dress is stained and her expression exhausted.  
“The King and his retainers have made this harder for you but by turning you away they have shifted the fate of you both.” Gentiana is cryptic and suddenly there and Prompto remembers that a few years ago Noctis had mentioned her not being human.  
“Lady Lunafreya, why…am I here?”  
“Years ago, I asked that you remain by Noctis’ side. Now, I ask that you remain at mine. I must go to the Fulgurian, I would like it if you would be my guard and confidante.”  
Prompto’s heart is torn asunder but finds a resolve. He had failed the King, he will not fail the Oracle.

“Let’s Go!”


	2. Severing the last thread is harder than the rest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prince and Shadow part.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> UHHHHHHHHHHHHHH  
> SO IM NOT DEAD  
> IVE JUST BEEN AT UNI AND DYING BC STATS UNIT WAS THIS SEM  
> sniffy the virtual rat can also go die in a hole  
> BUT IM REALLY TRYING TO GET BACK WRITING AGAIN  
> This might be a bit abstract bc thats my default writing but i hope its ok for now

The boy in the red cloak becomes the shadow of the oracle. The people speak of him in hushed words as it is oft said he once shadowed the prince of Insomnia before the fall. The fall tore them asunder as the prince and the shadow lashed out in grief for the loss of their home.

They say the shield and the mind of the pince cast the shadow out because a shadow cannot protect. 

They say the shadow weeps.  
They say the prince weeps. 

-  
The prince does not weep.  
The prince does not do very much, actually.

He mourns anew as the echoes of his friend disappear and his heart is shrouded in the fear of what ifs.  
He fears he has been the catalyst to his dearest friend's demise.  
He is afraid. 

-  
The shadow does not weep.  
The shadow is far too busy to weep.

He mourns the loss of his final thread of connection to his oldest friend but marches on.  
The princess is warm and soft and believes in him.  
He is growing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i tried ok  
> luna why wont you let me write you a pov

**Author's Note:**

> idk if im gonna play with this more but i'd like to.
> 
> let me know what you think!  
> (either here or on twitter @aflyinghamster)


End file.
